Jan van Doesborch

[6] Presumably he learned the printing profession from the Antwerp printer Roland vanden Dorpe, whose company and inventory he took over from his widow around 1501 or 1502 after his death.

[9][10] In 1523 Doesborch was apparently in England, as his name can be found as "Johanne van Dwysborow" in the Tax Records of the parish church of St Martin-in-the-Fields in London.

[12] Scholars of the history of printing have also suggested that Doesborch's publications exerted a considerable influence on the English book market.

R. Maslen for instance posits that: "If William Caxton and Wynkyn de Worde had a more obvious influence on a wider range of literary genres, van Doesborch and his translators—who included the Englishman Laurence Andrewe—may be said to have shaped the entire course of English prose fiction in the sixteenth century.

"[13] Ben Parsons has likewise stated: "Van Doesborch may even be termed a literary dictator, as his publications set the tone of the English book market for a number of years.

Similarly, his books Of the newe landes, Die reyse van Lissebone, Van der nieuwer werelt, and the broadside De novo mondo incorporate the source material of Balthasar Sprenger's account of his participation in the Seventh Portuguese India Armada of 1505–06, a mercantile expedition from Lisbon to the eastern coast of Africa and India.